A Firehouse Extravaganza

So, it's Fire Prevention Month & the fire station here at Fort Irwin had an outdoor extravaganza to teach the kids fire safety as well as what to do in the event of a fire.  The crazies loved it & enjoyed climbing on the trucks, playing with the hoses & extinguishers, & of course the free cotton candy & tattoos were winners in their books!  It made for a fun way to spend part of our Saturday!

Captain Deacon

Learning about how to hear a fire alarm & follow an escape plan

Crawling out of the room & down the ladder to outside

 Some group shots on the truck & with Sparky, the firedog

 Putting out fires with the extinguishers -- K wouldn't put down her cotton candy to play

D was obsessed with the firetruck & K was in love with her cotton candy 

A group shout with Luke & Levi who enjoyed the adventure with us

Grilled Pizza -- Our Friday Night Tradition

So, living at the National Training Center for the Army means that all but one weekend a month are working weekends.  Seriously, we get our Soldier Man one weekend a month & the other 3 he is working.  There are units that come through here every month & the soldiers stationed here train them, teach them, & rate them prior to their deployment overseas.  So, we usually stick around home & don't drive the distance to town in an effort to see Daddy when he might shoot home for dinner or to read a book before bedtime.  In choosing to do that, we have to have some sort of excitement or ritual to make our weekends fun for the kids & separate the weekends as something different from the weekdays so that everyday doesn't run together & become incredibly boring.  So, in our house on Friday nights we have pizza night & movie night so that the crazies know it's the weekend & we are doing something above our regular weekly routine.  Recently, Oma mentioned to us that she grilled a pizza & talked about how yummy it was -- I was eager to try it & am always looking for ways to keep the heat out of the kitchen!  It worked.  It was a success.  It is our new Friday night thing before bath & movie. And the crazies make their pizzas on an individual size crust & have a blast doing it.  The instructions are below!

I just use the store-bought pizza dough.  We cut the dough into two sections of their liking & use the rest of the crust for us.  Once cut, place on the grill & cook until it browns & rises.

Remove from grill & turn over to the cooked side.

Add some sauce -- K eats a bite & spreads a bite.  D gets all the way to the edges.

 Choose you fixins.  You can tell we are a super fancy family --pepperoni, italian sausage, & cheese.

Add you toppings as you choose.

 Get to the grill fast -- before K eats the toppings one by one.

Let the pizzas stay on the grill until the cheese melts, about 3-4 minutes.

And Presto!  All done & dig in!

D is for Dentist!!

We had a "first" around here this week -- the crazies made their first trip to the dentist.  I know, I know, you are supposed to do this around 2 or 3 years old depending on what the doctor says, but we were moving & did not want to establish ourselves for 1 appointment only to move a month later.  So, closer to 4 years old, D had his first appointment & K shy of 3 years old followed suite.  So, for our "D week" we had a dentist theme learning about teeth, good food choices for our teeth, & using teeth to do math.  It was different & they had fun.  I also introduced time to D which he picked up pretty quickly -- we are still learning how to write all of our numbers, but with some cut & paste worksheets he was sailing smoothly!  And after a successful trip to the dentist where both crazies were inducted into the "No Cavity Hall of Fame" we bumped into a fundraiser group selling Krispy Kremes & had to buy some; afterall, doughnuts starts with "d" (& we haven't had them in about 8 months!!).  So, we have our "D"s down & know more about teeth than we did a week ago!

Our verse -- one that I have always loved.

K practicing tracing her letters

D doing his "D" sheet

  Our happy & sad teeth to learn about good & bad food for our teeth

So proud of my little man... he got it quick!

 Some busy work for K

Our glorious doughnut morning... melt in your mouth!!

Practiced writing numbers by counting teeth in the various smiles

Did some patterns using our dental pattern cards

Key Lime Tarts

Lately with the summer wrapping up here in the desert (thank you GOD!!!) there have been lots of Margaritaville-types of get together.  You know, the ones where you spend the evenings taking in the margaritas & corona & tequila while you can still feel the sting of the sun on your skin?  There are just some drinks that are accompanied with certain weather & in my mind margaritas & heat are a lovely couple.  With those happenings, I find myself making the same little tarts again & again not just because they are so delicious, but because they disappear at every gathering.  I'm not left carrying any extra home which is good for the hostess & great for me!  So the recipe is as follows... 

Square-cut sugar cookies, 1 container of cool whip, 8 oz. cream cheese, 1 lime, & powdered sugar.

Place the sugar cookie squares into a mini-tart pan.  Create a dowel in each one using your hand or a fancy tool -- they all work the same. 

They should look like this.  When they do, cook according to the package directions.

When they come out of the oven -- this is the most important part -- set the timer for 8 minutes.  Let them cool & then remove them from the pan after 8 minutes.  I have found if I try to remove them before they fall apart & if they sit in there too long they stick.  They should look like this when they are done.

While they are cooling, in a bowl mix together the cream cheese, the zest of 1 lime, the juice of 1 lime, the cool whip, & 1 cup of powdered sugar.  (I have also added 2 tbsp. of tequila on occasion to jazz them up a little bit -- it depends on your crowd.)  It should have an even consistency.  After the cups are completely cooled, pipe the filling into each cup.  

Refrigerate & pull our about 30 minutes prior to serving.  They can be garnished with a strawberry if desired.  Warning: they are habit-forming.

My Little Bums!!

I ain't done yet, but I have a little preview of a project I am working on.  I LOVE their little bums... hopefully by this weekend I will be all done!

It was a C for Critter Kinda Week

We just wrapped another week of learning here.  The crazies focused on "C" this week with critters being our theme.  We had alot of fun crafts to incorporate as well as some great ideas to help them learn.  We attracted ants by leaving 3 different kids of food out across the street at the park, we did some fun critter movements (roll like a roly-poly, etc.), & we made a caterpillar turn into a butterfly with the cocoon & all (that is a different post).  They had fun, D knows how to write Cs, & they are loving learning, which is the overall goal.  Below are some of our ideas!

C is for Critters!!!

We made ants out of toilet paper rolls.

K practiced some fine motor skills with stickers.

D did some critter subtraction.

 We learned more about patterns using bug pictures.

We made a bumblebee from a paper plate.

 For cooking day, we made lady bug pretzels.  They were super yummy!!

The Caterpillar to Butterfly Transformation

While learning about critters, bugs, & insects this week I came across a fun activity to teach kids about the caterpillar to butterfly transformation.  It was super easy & a fun way to explain how they change so I had to do it.  On day #1, the crazies made caterpillars using a clothespin & pom-pom balls.  On day #2, their caterpillars went into a quiet place (a toilet paper roll) & built a cocoon.  We wrapped the toilet paper roll with brown tissue paper & they sealed it together by painting the paper with some watered-down glue.  On day #3, the crazies colored coffee filters with markers & then wet them to spread the colors out.  These created their wings.  They cut open the cocoons (with supervision, of course!) & the caterpillars turned into butterflies as they clasped the wings into the clothespin.  They thought it was fun & walked away understanding the process a little bit better.  

Building caterpillars

Sealing the cocoons

Coloring our wings

Cutting open the cocoons -- look out everyone, they have a KNIFE!!

Really mom, another picture?!?